Mysterious Chateau CAT18

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

I’ve been browsing in my spare time and came across a mention of a Chateau CAT18 device named RBD53G-5HacD2HnD-TC&EG18-EA.
From the pictures I’ve seen of the Chateau LTE12, the Quectel EG12-EA modem is an LGA SMD component.

So I was wondering:

  • Does this mean external parties are modifying these devices with thermal reflow soldering and discarding the EG12-EA for an EG18-EA?


  • Or, are external parties making use of the unused M.2 slot?


  • Or have I got it completely backwards and Mikrotik have done another sneaky product release?

The alleged Chateau CAT18 can be found here, here and here.

Edit: Unless both Quectel EG12-EA and EG18-EA share the same pinout, the first possibility makes no sense.

2

My guess: some reselers are jumping ahead by listing a product not announced officially yet. It happened before. So my guess is that MT is preparing for launch of this gadget.

3

If that’s the case then the cat is most definitely out of the bag. :smiley:

4

Was expecting to see some castle with some state of the art cabling.

5

They need to put M.2 modem slots in so we have the freedom to customize the modems as it is unrealistic to have an integrated modem that works well for everyone.

6

After more snooping, it looks like this was planned as far back as 7th February, 2020.
See: https://www.mikrotik.ro/index.php?controller=attachment?id_attachment=397
The brochure lays out Chateau models that use the EG18-EA, as well as a TBD on specs for a 5G NR model that supports n41/n77/n78/n79 bands.

7

Dear All,

I already owning a Chateau LTE12 and would like to upgrade it to 5G instead of buying a completly new device.

Does anyone know if I can order a kit to upgrade from Chateau LTE12 to 5G? I assume it is just about replacing the modem mini PCI card and attaching the external antenna connectors?


E.g. if I put a modem RM500Q-AE into the Chateau LTE12 box, then will it work?

This is the modem which the Chateau 5G has according to the datashet:
https://i.mt.lv/cdn/product_files/Chateau_distro_4b_210344.pdf

Thanks a lot in advance!

8

Sorry, Chateau LTE12 have a soldered lte SoC to main PCB - this means you not have a way to change into any other lte modem/module :(.
You can only sell that unit and buy other one.

Chateau 5G have got a m.2 slot, this is first unit from MikroTik with m.2 slot and we wait for new line of that device like M11G/M33G/SXTR/LHGR/LDFR with m.2 slot EMPTY to put own m.2 card, this give us all best options. I very like Quectel EM160/EM50x modules and this give us many option for future.
Of course we wait for stable ROS7.1 too.